Abstract
Team diversity may lead to a categorization of teammates as ingroup versus outgroup members. Therefore, the question arises whether there would be more permissiveness in reaction to ingroup free-riders than outgroup free-riders. To test this hypothesis, subjects were randomly assigned to one of two reward conditions (equity versus equality) and had to work with a partner who obviously underachieved and supposedly belonged to the same or a different group with regard to cognitive style. In addition, we assessed subjects’ individual sensitivity to equity norms, assuming that this would be a further moderator of the sucker effect. As expected, significant interaction effects on individual performance occurred for both variables.
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